After leaving us a bit on edge by only defeating Trinidad & Tobago 1-0 (Melissa Tancredi’s two disallowed legit goals notwithstanding), the Canadian women’s team came out in full force tonight, hammering the minnows from Guyana 8-0. Captain Christine Sinclair potted four goals, bringing her career total to, I think, six thousand and forty-three (give or take a few) — though that good news was tempered by rumblings (credit to Beau Dure) that her club team, Gold Pride FC, may fold as early as Monday. Hell, it may have already happened by the time you’re reading this.

But ignoring the negatives for a moment (because they’ll preoccupy every other waking thought of mine), suffice to say the ladies played well tonight (yeah, an eight-goal margin of victory would suggest as much), though it’s difficult to effectively evaluate their play when the level of opposition was so low. Both Kara Lang and Jonelle Filigno did well pressuring the Guyanese defenders, often forcing them into poor decisions (and both were rewarded with goals, for their efforts).

The big game is Tuesday against Mexico, to decide the winner of Group A. Since T&T held the Mexicans to 2-0 tonight, Canada has the upper hand. A draw would clinch the group, and (most likely) line Canada up against Costa Rica in the semi-finals, rather than the #1-ranked Americans.

Maribel Dominguez looks to be the Mexicans’ most dangerous offensive threat, a statement I’m basing solely on having seen her thread some terrific passes into her teammates against T&T tonight.The Canadian defence, who’ve had the luxury of sleepwalking through the first two games, will definitely need to ratchet themselves into first gear in time for the showdown against the host nation.

Canada’s match against Mexico, like the rest of them, will be on CBC Bold and CBCsports.ca, Tuesday at 6:30 PST/9:30 EST/11:00 NST.

Yes that shameful headline is intended to maximize hits by luring in some possibly pervy Google searchers. Sadly, such is the lot of Canadian soccer: we have to garner interest any way we can. No slight at all is intended to the wonderful gals of our Women’s national team. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Tonight marks the kickoff, literally, of the Canadian women’s quest for simultaneous Gold Cup glory and a berth in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. And it’s our duty as soccer-loving Canucks to support them, if not by shooting on down to Cancun (as if we actually needed more reason to go to Cancun on a blustery October day), then at least by watching them play. Continue reading →

I got into a heated Twitter debate yesterday with Rollins about support for the men’s national team versus the women’s national team. While he argued that there was a greater “potential” support base for the men’s team, I relied on the numbers. Each team has played two friendly matches at BMO Field since it opened; the women drew 13,554 and 10,225 (23,779 total), while the men drew 9,325 and 10,619 (19,944 total).

Now, he made the case that the few thousand gung-ho Canada fans at the men’s games (surrounded by opposition supporters, remember) are more “dialed in” (and therefore, more valuable?) than the largely pro-Canada crowds drawn by the women’s team, comprised as they were by screaming young girls rather than drunken chanting louts (well, except for me and a handful of others).

The debate will surely rage on, as the women’s national team (a.k.a. Big Red) is set to play their third-ever game at BMO Field next Thursday, against China. It’s unknown right now what sort of crowd will turn out for the match — but at the very least, I’ve got one person agreeing with me on the merits of packing the house with excited youngsters: veteran Canadian midfielder Diana Matheson (who, last week, won her 100th cap as a member of Big Red).

“It’s extremely important” to get young girls out to the game, she told me during a media call earlier today. “A lot of girls don’t realize the team exists. (But) being accessible to them makes them want to reach higher goals. Unfortunately, we don’t do it enough.” Continue reading →